


I'll Be With You

by GleekPlusDirectioner



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Tissue Warning, anonymous tumblr prompt, never writing something this sad again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-11
Updated: 2014-04-11
Packaged: 2018-01-18 22:51:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1445758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GleekPlusDirectioner/pseuds/GleekPlusDirectioner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Liam and Niall finally tell their feelings to one another and become a couple. When Niall is suddenly diagnosed with leukaemia, Liam spends the last few days with his special snowflake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Be With You

Niall looked up from his book when he heard someone at his front door. He sat the book aside and headed towards the tentative knock, cautiously pulling open his front door. "Li, hey," he greeted his friend, surprised by his visit.

"Hey," Liam half-smiled, hands deep in his pockets.

"Uh… come in." Stepping aside, Niall let Liam into his house and directed him towards the living room. He sits himself down where he had been before, but doesn't pick his book up again.

Plopping down next to Niall, Liam stayed silent for a moment. "What were you reading?" he asked, pointing to Niall's glasses.

"Oh…" Sitting his glasses aside with his book, Niall shrugged. "The Hunger Games. I wanted to know what all the hype was. I actually think I like watching Josh Hutcherson better than reading it."

Liam raised an eyebrow. "Most people think of Jennifer Lawrence," he pointed out.

Niall thought for a moment, then shrugged it off. "Did you just come 'round to hang out, or was there a reason?" he asked carefully. "'Cause, y'know, you usually text me before you come over."

"Oh… yeah, um…" Liam shifted nervously. "There was something I wanted to talk to you about, yeah."

Turning on the couch so he was facing his friend, Niall nodded and gestured for Liam to begin. "All ears."

"Okay…" Blowing out a slow breath, Liam began, "Y'know the other night… when we were all at Louis' place?"

"After playing footie, yeah?"

"Remember how we were all drinking?" Liam asked.

Niall laughed. "Man, you know I never forget drinking."

"Yeah… well… do you remember-?"

"Kissing you?" Niall finished. Liam nodded silently. "Definitely." He gave Liam a suddenly worried look. "Are you pissed about that? 'Cause you haven't talked to me since…"

"No!" Liam answered quickly.

"No?" Niall checked.

Shaking his head frantically, Liam insisted, "No, I'm not mad, no way. Actually… um…"

Niall bit his lip. "You liked it and wanna do it again?" he asked hopefully, adding a nervous little laugh at the end and making a point of not meeting Liam's eyes. He eventually settled for staring at his hands in his lap.

"More sober, yeah."

"Huh?" Niall's head shot up and he stared at Liam incredulously. "You… you wanna kiss me sober?"

"Yeah…" Liam stood up. "Look, I'll just go. I think I've pretty well messed up your afternoon enough-"

Niall grabbed Liam's arm and yanked him back over to the couch. "You wanna kiss me?" he asked softly.

"Well… yeah. I've kinda… No, not kinda, I've fancied you for months," Liam confessed. "Maybe longer. I just know I only really realised that one time we were wrestling on stage and I had you on your back and your _eyes_ …"

Tugging Liam back onto the couch, Niall took both of his hands. His face was tinted pink, but nevertheless he murmured, "I was looking at you like that 'cause I'd had a similar moment a few shows before that."

Liam looked to Niall's face. "Really?" he breathed in disbelief.

"Yeah," Niall giggled. He bit his lip nervously; now what did they do? "Uh… so, um… what do we-?"

Liam cut his question off with his lips, Niall sighing into the kiss and closing his eyes. It was just gentle, just lips on lips, but Niall was breathless when it ended.

"Whoa," he chuckled, blushing.

"I guess… now that we've got the confessing part over… do we do the dating thing?" Liam wondered. "Like, we've been best friends for years. We could just-" He was cut off by Niall kissing him, grinning at him when he pulled back. "Boyfriends?"

"Boyfriends," Niall beamed, diving in for another kiss.

 

It had been two weeks and Liam was so happy he felt like flying. He was dizzy every time he kissed Niall or held his hand or woke up beside him in the mornings. He had learned quickly that Niall enjoyed it when Liam would nuzzle his face into his neck while they were cuddling and watching a movie, and made sure to do it every time.

As _Iron Man_ neared its end, Niall yawned and mumbled, "I love you, Liam."

Liam couldn't contain his grin, pressing a small kiss to Niall's neck. "Love you, too," he whispered.

"Really?" Niall asked quietly, glancing over his shoulder at Liam.

"Yes, really," Liam chuckled, pecking Niall's nose. Watching Niall yawn again, he murmured, "Let's head to bed, yeah?"

"It's only eight," Niall told him, shaking his head. "I'll be fine."

Just as the movie finished, Liam heard Niall snoring softly. "I told you," he whispered with a smile. Sitting himself up, he scooped Niall into his arms and carried him to his bedroom, tucking him under the covers and kissing his forehead. "Sleep well, love."

 

It was when Niall nearly collapsed during rehearsals that Liam really began to worry. "Nialler, are you okay?" he checked, brushing Niall's fringe off his forehead and testing his temperature.

"M'fine," Niall mumbled unconvincingly.

Liam helped his boyfriend to the side of the room, carefully sitting him down on a couch used for their breaks. "What's wrong, love?"

Sighing, Niall rubbed his eyes. "M'just tired."

"Nialler, you had a sleep-in this morning, and you were in bed by nine last night." Liam rubbed Niall's side comfortingly, but the blonde flinched. "What? What did I do?"

"Hurts," Niall explained meekly. "Under my ribs." He ran his hand over the area to show his boyfriend.

"What's happening, Ni?" Liam asked worriedly.

Niall shook his head. "Nothing, I'm fine."

"No, Niall, you're not," Liam said firmly, stopping Niall from standing up. "Tell me, what's wrong?"

Closing his eyes, Niall blew out a breath and whispered, "Can you take me to see my doctor?"

"Sure-" Liam started.

"My doctor back home," Niall clarified. "In Ireland. I need to see him."

"Okay," Liam nodded, leaning forward and kissing Niall's forehead.

 

As soon as they arrived in Dublin, they headed straight for Niall's old doctor's surgery. Niall had been silent for most of the trip; granted, he had been asleep.

Liam woke the blonde gently when they reached their destination and helped him out of the car.

Once they were in the reception area, Niall whispered, "Could you wait out here, Li?"

"If you need me to," Liam nodded.

 

Liam was seated beside Maura on her couch when Niall explained what had happened. Niall's immediate family were all there, even Denise and Theodore. Maura stood and wrapped him in a tearful hug, as did Greg, while Bobby stood behind them with a hand on Niall's back, visibly fighting tears. Liam sat still on the couch, his brain not accepting what it had been told.

"Leukaemia?" he managed to croak out.

"I've got Recurring Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia," Niall replied quietly. "Recurring because I got it as a kid and the treatment fixed it. My doctor said there was a good chance my remission was permanent, but I guess not."

Shaking his head, Liam stated, "People recover from leukaemia all the time. They can treat it, can't they?"

"It was a really close call last time," Niall sniffed. He tightened the arm he had around his mother when she sobbed into his shoulder. "They thought I had refractory CLL, 'cause it wasn't responding to several treatments, but they fixed it." Resting his head against his brother's shoulder, Niall whispered, "But this time the doctor's diagnosed it as terminal."

Liam buried his face in his hands. "No." He stood up and left the room, heading down the hall and out of the house. He couldn't be in there, he needed space to get his head around this. Dropping himself onto Maura's front path, Liam hid his face again and took several deep breaths.

It was half an hour before anyone came out looking for him, and in that time Liam had managed to cry himself into resignation. He was sitting silently when the front door opened.

"Liam?" Niall's footsteps came his way, the blonde sitting down beside him. "Li?"

Sniffing, Liam looked up at him and stroked Niall's cheek with his thumb. "Hey," he smiled sadly.

Niall twisted his fingers together in his lap. "I never thought it'd come back," he said softly.

Liam grabbed Niall's hand tightly in his own, meeting his eyes and murmuring, "It's not your fault."

"But everyone's so upset…" Niall whispered.

"Of course we are, Nialler, but that's not your fault." Leaning their foreheads together, Liam told him, "We're not going to let this get us down, okay? We're going to make the best of the time we have."

"Yeah," Niall squeaked, his voice disappearing as he tried not to cry.

"No, no tears, okay? No crying." Liam pulled Niall into a hug and rubbed his back. "No crying. We're not gonna think about the future. What matters is now. Here and now."

Niall nodded against his shoulder. "Here and now."

 

"Now, I believe you boys have an announcement you wish to make," beamed the cheerful man interviewing the band. "I'm sure everyone's dying to know."

Niall flinched a little at the terminology. "Yeah, mainly me, but it affects the whole band, so…" Blowing out a breath, Niall explained, "This probably isn't what anyone wants to hear, but it's gotta be said. I found out the other day that I've got Terminal Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia." The whole studio went silent. "There's nothing the doctors can do to treat it. It's… it's hard. But please, I don't want sympathy. None of the boys want sympathy either. I'm not going to check my twitter account anymore because I don't want words of encouragement or any of that bull."

Liam could see that Niall was starting to get emotional and took his hand, squeezing for support. "I'm sure you all understand that this isn't easy for any of us, but it can't be changed. And we don't want to focus on what's going to happen, because right now, we're still a band and we're still together. I'm going to ask that no one sends messages to Niall's family or any of us, because we don't need anyone bursting into tears." He glanced to Niall and noticed tears in his eyes. "Hey," he whispered, rubbing Niall's back.

"I thought I could do this," Niall breathed out, sniffling. "I didn't want to cry…" he whimpered, hiding his face in his hands.

"Ssh…" Liam pulled Niall into his lap, holding him tightly. He checked the other boys to make sure they were okay. Zayn was staring unseeingly into the audience, Louis' face buried in his shoulder, while Harry was sitting with his hands clasped and head down. "As you can see," Liam began, keeping his voice steady as he stroked Niall's hair, "this is hard on all of us. If people tweet us or message us with sympathy, we'll leave the websites altogether until we feel comfortable returning." He specifically avoided saying 'until Niall's dead', because that would not only upset other people, but Niall was damn near sobbing against his shoulder and he didn't need to make it worse. "Ni?" he whispered, rubbing his boyfriend's shoulder.

"'M okay," Niall mumbled, nodding meekly. "'M okay."

 

Liam spent all his time with Niall after that. They went for walks together, they watched movies together, and they spent a lot of time cuddling together. But there came a time when walks were too hard for Niall and he fell asleep within half an hour of a movie. Some mornings, Liam would carry his boyfriend to the kitchen because he couldn't get out of bed himself.

"Liam?" Niall whispered one afternoon. He had been unable to move all day and was lying on the couch with the older boy wrapped around him.

"Mm?" Liam hummed, stroking Niall's cheek.

"Can we watch the sunset tonight?"

Kissing Niall's forehead and tucking the blonde's head under his chin, Liam murmured, "Sure we can." He squeezed his eyes shut tight, desperately fighting tears. He knew what was coming.

"I just want to see something beautiful before…"

"Yeah," Liam whispered.

So a little later on, Liam carried Niall to the car and drove them towards the water, arriving just as the sun was beginning to set. Liam lifted Niall out of the car and just held him, the blonde's head resting on his shoulder as the light threw colours across the sky.

"Thank you," Niall said softly.

"No worries," Liam assured him. "Anything for you."

Niall's eyelids began to droop tiredly. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Don't forget me, Liam. Promise?"

"How could I forget you?" Liam sniffled with a slight laugh. "I promise, Nialler, I'll never forget you."

Nodding once, Niall settled his head on Liam's shoulder and closed his eyes. "Thank you."


End file.
